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Biomedical Center Salutes Vaccine Developer

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In 1971, during some playful shenanigans, Dr. Stanley Plotkin (left), at the time on the research faculty at Wistar, injects rabies vaccine into the unwillingly extended arm of Dr. Hilary Koprowski, former Wistar director, as then-faculty member Dr. Tadeusz Wiktor "helps" out. The three physicians developed the landmark vaccine.

Dr. Stanley A. Plotkin, professor emeritus at the Wistar Institute and a longtime major force in the scientific world, will be honored with the first Caspar Wistar Award at the institute’s gala this Saturday night, Oct. 26, at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue.

Plotkin is credited with developing major vaccinations over more than a half-century of research, including the rubella vaccine, focusing on the RA27/3 strain, at Wistar, a biomedical center in the University City section of Philadelphia. He and Wistar colleagues Dr. Hilary Koprowski and Dr. Tadeusz Wiktor also created the vaccine against rabies.